Structural Design And Experimental Research Of A Double-disc Trenching And Fertilizing And Mulching Machine For Tea Plantations

As a major tea-producing region in China,Fujian Province has ranked first in the country in terms of total tea industry value in recent years,but most of the tea plantation terrain is hilly and mountainous.For a long time,there are few tea machinery applicable to mountain tea garden management machinery,and there are problems such as serious soil caking,fertilizer loss and manual trenching and fertilization,resulting in a low level of tea garden management mechanization for a long time,which restricts the overall mechanization level.In this paper,we develop a double-disc high-efficiency trenching and fertilizer application machine for tea plantations in Fujian Province,which can complete three processes of trenching,deep application of organic fertilizer and mulching at one time.The key structure and operating parameters of the integrated machine were optimized,and soil tank tests were carried out to verify them.The main research elements are as follows.(1)Based on the soil characteristics of tea ranches in Fujian Province and the agronomic requirements of tea plantation trenching and fertilizing,the overall design of the machine was completed,and the structure and working principle of the whole machine were introduced,the power consumption of the whole machine was theoretically deduced,and a reasonable power matching scheme was determined.(2)The design of key components such as the furrow opening device,fertiliser application device and soil mulching device was completed.Theoretical research and analysis of the fertiliser adjustment mechanism of the fertiliser application device were carried out,and the design of each mechanism of the fertiliser application device was completed;the mulching mechanism was studied,and the mulching device was designed to achieve the standard mulching thickness and low soil disturbance.(3)Establish a discrete element simulation model of the interaction between the disc trenching device and the soil with the help of EDEM,and ponder the impact of the disc distance across and the disc point on the stability of the trenching depth and the resistance to trenching.(3)The design of the fertilizer discharge device was optimized by using Designexpert software.(4)Complete the development of the machine and carry out performance verification and soil trench tests.The average furrow depth of the machine is 145.5mm and the average stability coefficient of tillage depth is 91.1% to meet the requirements of open furrow loosening depth≥80mm and stability ≥85%.The average fertiliser application rate for each section was 21.6 g with a coefficient of variation of uniformity of3.4%.The average mulch thickness was 35.3 mm and the coefficient of variation of mulch thickness ranged from 5.08% to 8.38%.The coefficient of variation of mulch thickness did not vary much and was less than 10%,all of which met the mechanical agronomic requirements of the tea plantation.